Today, manufacturers of high-dollar medical devices often do not have visibility to these products once they leave the manufacturing facility, thereby creating significant inefficiencies and increased costs in the marketplace. This lack of inventory control equates to the following industry waste: 1) very low inventory turns equating to millions of dollars in working capital waste; 2) high risk of devices expiring in the field, creating risk that devices could be surgically implanted in the human patient; 3) costly recall or field action management, as inventory location is unknown once the product is shipped from the point of manufacture, and 4) an inventory supply/distribution chain that is filled with un-necessary inventory, thereby driving the cost of product and product management up significantly. Today, there are no known electronic data systems that provide visibility to inventory across the country.
One of the inefficiencies in inventory management is the process of recording inventory utilizing computer-readable indicia, such as bar codes. Bar codes on the outside of inventory packages are encoded indicia that reflect can be used to reflect original equipment manager (OEM) name, part number, lot and/or serial number, quantity, and/or expiration date. Scanning bar codes on the outside of packaging using a handheld scanning device can be time-consuming and introduces possibilities of user error when indicia are skipped.